Microsoft has cancelled development of Microsoft Flight, as well as Project Columbia, described as "a Kinect interactive TV project designed for children" by Kotaku. The site originally reported that the entire Vancouver studio responsible for these games was being shut down, but an update from MS clarifies that these projects are at an end, but not the studio itself. Here's the official statement:

Microsoft Studios is always evaluating its portfolio of products to determine what is best for gamers, families and the company, and this decision was the result of the natural ebb and flow of our portfolio management. Many factors were considered in the difficult decision to stop development on "Microsoft Flight" and "Project Columbia," but we feel it will help us better align with our long-term goals and development plans. For "Microsoft Flight," we will continue to support the community that has embraced the title and the game will still be available to download for free at http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/.

I am not surprised. They charged a buttload for unfinished (no cockpit) planes. If they charget $2 for a new plane, rather than $9, the adoption rate would have been a lot higher. When a selling feature of your newest DLC is that it isn't incomplete like the last 5, there is an issue.

I want to meet the pissant who thought MS Flight Simulator could be dumbed down and see increased profits. I bet it's some 27 year old kid who grew up playing N64 on his couch (I like to have a clear identifiable target for my dissatisfaction, we need more of that). Flight sims are a niche market with an established fan base. Their sales must have been predictable, they must have been profitable relative to their budget.. This is just greed. MS FS must sell COD numbers! It seems if a franchise isn't selling 5 million units it's deemed a failure.

I'm seriously to the point that MS should just get the fuck out of the game market.. They are clueless money lubbing idiots, that they would market they're way out of the greatest content ever produced, if they could somehow muster up that content.. (Fat chance)

I spent some time TRYING to help them in AOE Online.. what a bunch of asshole snobs they were, and their products and systems were complete shit annoying the fucking people that helped them for FREE, and they're attitudes prove to me, this company can't succeed ever again in this realm.

Yeah, as soon as I seen the DLC on a F2P game totalling over $100, yeah it was obviously another marketing failure before it even started... Nice try, make a game only MAJOR SIM FANS WOULD LOVE, and skip on the SIM, lol failboat 101

I'm always interested in a new sim but as others have pointed out this had nothing: no physics, scenery, traffic, flight plan...

To the person who designed this: if it was feature creep or an extremely limited budget, I feel for ya. If not, I have to ask how long exactly did you think people would enjoy flying around doing......nothing? New planes with no pits?!

Any other propheads out there might want to know that Rise of Flight is having a big sale until I think the 28th. While I prefer aircraft that are a little more modern it's probably the best flight sim out today.

Meh. I enjoyed flying around Hawaii just for grins but none of the DLC came cheap. Although I came real close to buying the whole Hawaii Island Adventure pack that includes the other islands during the Steam summer sale. But even then it wasn't discounted all that much. I think a F2P flight sim was an awesome idea and it probably would've gone over well if they weren't charging through the nose for every little thing. Clearly they were aiming this at the hardcore sim buffs (the only people crazy enough to drop a lot of money on a pack with a single plane in it) and they missed their mark pretty widely.

I'm surprised it took this long. I understand that they were trying to get new users into the flight genre but the flight dynamics had been "dumbed down" so much that there was really no challenge at all. it's ok Microsoft, just give us a proper FS11 and all is forgiven!

Microsoft Flight was so watered down from previous MS Flight Sims that you could fly it with a damn 360 controller. The graphics were bland, the world lifeless and boring, and the flight model was laughably over-simplified. Had the game itself been at all compelling the issue with the DLC would have been less of a moot point, but as it was they could offered all of the DLC for free and it would have changed nothing.

Microsoft committed to PC gaming? Please...

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Microsoft doesn't give a shit about PC gaming. If they did then we'd see PC ports of games like Halo 4 and Gears of War 4 confirmed with DX11 features and a simultaneous release with the console version. Other publishers are going out of their way to do proper PC versions and yet Microsoft - developers of the Windows platform - are actively buying up franchises and blocking them from coming to PC.

Microsoft Flight was an attempt to dumb down a traditional PC franchise and - like Age Of Empires Online - was designed to dramatically increase the total cost of ownership. To own all the content it costs £62/$100, which is more than twice what a conventional game costs. F2P is a crock of shit.

If Microsoft wants to win over PC gamers then the first thing they need to do is scrap GFWL, which is an unbelievable pain in the ass. I went to play Arkham City on a different computer because I saw that it supported Steam Cloud but no, GFWL fucks that up good and proper. I really hope that Valve gets Linux support right just to get Microsoft to stop treating the PC market with contempt.

They're doing a piss-poor job and I question their commitment too, but not because they've canned a rubbish game.

Sure but it's not just another game out of a dozen or something, otherwise I'd agree with you. This was literally one of their projects that they claimed was a sign of their commitment to PC gaming (dubious or not). So saying "so much for their commitment to the PC" isn't exactly unreasonable considering they have next to no actual PC projects and just finished killing this one after a short period of time.

When they announce something in its place or show case some other projects then I'll reconsider. I'm not counting that "exclusive" Metro game that looked like it was made for kids though